Thinking of starting a pond(s) need some advice!

[Scottyhorse]

We have a couple common goldfish (I believe) that came with the house we moved in last summer. Currently they are in a HUUUGE cement horse trough, but since we have horses, they have to drink out of if. There is no filter or anything, so was I recommended that I move them out for their and the horses good. I had been thinking of doing that, but never really had any idea how. Anywho...
I found a 270 gal pond kit from HomeDepot. Comes with the pond liner, pump, and a few other things. Here is the link.
I would like to know if I need to buy anything else, and other things I need to know for starting a pond. I plan on having 6 common goldfish. I'll also have netting over the top so nothing can eat them.
I was also thinking of doing I smaller pond (85 Gallons) and putting fancy goldfish in it. I would make it look like the two are connected, but the fish are not able to be in contact with each other.

 

[emerald76]

A very general rule for stocking common Goldies is 70 gals for the first and 30 gals for each goldfish after. So your pond of 270 gals should be able to hold about 7 goldfish, but six should be perfect!

 

[bettagirl03]

From what I've reasearched in the past (I want to talk my parents into a small pond) 6 glodies should be fine in there. Glad that you're moving them out of the horse trough!

 

[Alspond]

First, I want to encourage you to start a pond because they are so much fun.

Second, I would not worry about either the goldfish or the horses if you were to leave the fish in the trough.
Unless your horses are particularly skittish they won't be bothered by the goldfish ( i know horses can be peculiar. some are frightened by their shadows and can only be ridden into the sun). The goldfish won't be bothered by the horses.

My brother and I stocked our water trough with a 5 bluegills and 2 bullheads when we around 8 years old.
All the fish were alive and well 6 years later when the farm was sold.
The trough was used by 60 cows and 5 horses. Gold fish are as tough as bluegills so they would be fine.
They found enough bugs to eat.

Have fun!

 

[jlk]

I grew up on a dairy farm. Although the dairy part is long gone, my parents still have horses and my retiree is up there, too. She keeps commons in the horse troughs. No filtration, no food, nothing special at all other than water top offs. They are big and thriving and actually keep the troughs reasonably clean and bug free. I can not tell her otherwise on keeping them but she does move them into a 1/4 acre pond when they get to be a decent size.

What do you have in mind in respect to fancies? How are your winters? Just realize you may need to move them indoors for the winter so be prepared to have adequate room to keep them indoors. Generally, its recommended to have alot more water for outdoor fancies than indoor.

 

[Scottyhorse]

I grew up on a dairy farm. Although the dairy part is long gone, my parents still have horses and my retiree is up there, too. She keeps commons in the horse troughs. No filtration, no food, nothing special at all other than water top offs. They are big and thriving and actually keep the troughs reasonably clean and bug free. I can not tell her otherwise on keeping them but she does move them into a 1/4 acre pond when they get to be a decent size.

What do you have in mind in respect to fancies? How are your winters? Just realize you may need to move them indoors for the winter so be prepared to have adequate room to keep them indoors. Generally, its recommended to have alot more water for outdoor fancies than indoor.

Yeah, I know the goldies are fine the trough, but we can't change any water in the winter, and it seems kind of gross to me for the horses to be drinking poop water
And, we would get to enjoy them more anyways, I think.

I actually decided to not get the fancies- yet, anyways.

 

[Sharpchick]

How cool! That pond should certainly be fine for your commons.

But I'd ditch the silk lilies and go with live plants. Outdoors, the fish will need some shade from the summer sun, so minimally, you need some floating plants to cover about 30% of the ponds surface for shade, oxygen and to keep temps in the pond down during the summer. And if your commons are already mature adults, it may not be a good idea to put a real lily in the pond, only to watch them chew it to shreds. (Lilies are kind of pricey.)

Probably will need some rocks or flat stones to hold the pond liner in place...

 

[Alspond]

Ditto on live plants.
My experience is in Florida where most plants keep going in the winter.

I have comets,shubunkins, and sawasas In a lily pond. The don't seem to bother the lilies.
We also have kingfishers and green herons fish our pond.
Plants give hiding places for the fish.

Once the fish get about 5 inches they are too big for the kingfisher
At 8 inches too big for the small herons.
We have great blues but they stay away from the house.

Have fun

 

[Scottyhorse]

How cool! That pond should certainly be fine for your commons.

But I'd ditch the silk lilies and go with live plants. Outdoors, the fish will need some shade from the summer sun, so minimally, you need some floating plants to cover about 30% of the ponds surface for shade, oxygen and to keep temps in the pond down during the summer. And if your commons are already mature adults, it may not be a good idea to put a real lily in the pond, only to watch them chew it to shreds. (Lilies are kind of pricey.)

Probably will need some rocks or flat stones to hold the pond liner in place...

We have plenty of rocks I can use for the liner. I was also going to not use the fake lilies because, to be honest, they're ugly

 

[Scottyhorse]

Ditto on live plants.
My experience is in Florida where most plants keep going in the winter.

I have comets,shubunkins, and sawasas In a lily pond. The don't seem to bother the lilies.
We also have kingfishers and green herons fish our pond.
Plants give hiding places for the fish.

Once the fish get about 5 inches they are too big for the kingfisher
At 8 inches too big for the small herons.
We have great blues but they stay away from the house.

Have fun

You have comets with shubunkins? Cool! There was this HUGE fancy goldfish at the LFS I wanted to buy really bad, but I didn't know if it would do too well the our two that we have. I'll be posting pictures on a new thread in a couple mins.